Regional hex: Third-ranked Hartland stymies Clarkston for title
BY DAN STICKRADT
SENIOR EDITOR
dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com
OXFORD — A big pot of stew is not full of flavor without a lot of vegetables and spices, much like a baseball team looking to make a long postseason run trying to do so without deep pitching as one of its key ingredients.
Hartland is such a ballclub that has that much-needed flavor.
The Eagles, making their third appearance in the Division 1 regional finals in four years, captured their second crown in that span with a 3-1 win over Clarkston in a regional final at Oxford High School. Hartland did so behind some sterling pitching performances.
The Eagles (33-3) scored all three of its run in the third inning and then slammed the door on the Wolves in the finals to keep their postseason dreams alive.
Sophomore right-hander Jake Lowery kept Clarkston’s potent lineup at bay most of the day. He finished with a complete game four-hitter and retired 13 of the final 14 batters he faced in the battle. Junior Jake Jessen got the win on the mound in a 5-2 semifinals victory over Romeo, where he took a no-hitter into the fifth inning.
Hartland coach Brian Morrison, whose team lost to Troy 12-2 in the 2008 regional finals and defeated Rochester Adams 8-1 in the 2009 regional title game, has lived off steady pitching all season long, which has proved to be the Eagles’ bread-and-butter.
“This has basically been happening to us all year. We get a couple timely hits and we pitch very well,” smiled Morrison. “We happened to get three (runs) and it turned out to be enough. To tell you the truth, when Jake is on the mound, three usually is enough.
“We have a very good (No. 1 and No. 2 pitcher), but we also have a few others that can go out there and get the job done,” added Morrison. “We have the pitching.”
That is why Hartland advances to the Division 1 state quarterfinals Tuesday at Madison Heights Bishop Foley, where Sterling Heights Stevenson awaits with a Final Four berth on the line.
Hartland played fine defense behind Lowery, including right fielder’s Alex Wachsmuth making a over-the-head catch in the bottom of the seventh to end the game.
In the top of the third, Harltand’s Wachsmuth had an RBI single, Sean Bennett supplied a sacrifice fly for another run and Lowery helped his own cause with an RBI single. The Eagles had four hits in the frame to help manufacture its three-run outburst.
For, Clarkston, it was the fifth time in nine seasons that the Wolves have failed to get over the regional finals hump. Clarkston also lost in the same round in 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2010.
The Wolves did win a regional in 2002 and eventually reached the state semifinals, but have not enjoyed similar success since that season.
In the finals against Hartland, Andrew Fairse, one of the Wolves’ 12 seniors, took the loss in for Clarkston (23-8), which defeated Hartland in a district final last year.
“Fairse did a phenomenal job,” said Clarkston coach Phil Price. “In one inning they strung together four hits and they got some runs. But every inning other than that, there weren’t many (base-runners). You have to tip your hat off to Hartland. Their pitcher did a phenomenal job.
“We just didn’t give him the support. I thought we had a lot of hard balls that just didn’t finish as hits,” continued Price. “From a baseball perspective, that was an outstanding game. Their players made plays. Their right fielder makes a great catch over is had, not in front of him, to end the game. You don’t see that too much in a high school game.
Clarkston loaded the bases in the first but could not plate a run. Michigan State-bound Chase Toth delivered an RBI single in the second inning that scored Jake Forsten, but the Wolves struggled to solve the unsolved mystery of Lowery’s mass array of pitches the rest of the way.
“I’m very proud of our kids. I thought they played well the whole game,” said Price. “They competed, played hard. You can’t ask for anything more than that,” added Price. “This one hurts. The kids have been here. They wanted it. Again, you have to tip your hats to Harland. We beat them in the district finals last season and they wanted every bit of us, too.”
HARTLAND 5, ROMEO 2: Jake Jassen was the winning pitcher, only allowing two runs in the fifth inning against Romeo in the second semifinal Saturday at Oxford. The Ealges never trailed, taking a 3-0 lead after three frames and never looking back.
CLARKSTON 6, UTICA EISENHOWER 3: Winners of seven districts in 10 years, Clarkston captured its sixth regional semifinals win in that stretch behind timely hitting and superb pitching of senior Matt Rodgers.
Rodgers, a senior right-hander, went all seven innings on the mound, scattering seven hits while giving up three earned runs with six strikeouts and no walks.
Rodgers, who helped his own cause with a two-run round-tripper in the first inning, finished 2-for-4 with three RBI. The Wolves added a run in the fifth, two in the sixth and one in the seventh.
Dylan Peck was 2-for-4 and Justin Baetz 2-for-3 for the Wolves.
Ricky Moceri was 1-for-4 and two RBI and Joey Zerafa 2-for-3 for Eisenhower (25-8), which scored all three of its runs in the bottom of the third but could not hold on to the momentum of a 3-2 lead.
Nick Katsavrias pitched five-plus innings and suffered the loss. He struck out two, walked two and gave up seven hits and five runs, three which were earned and the Eagles also committed a pair of errors in the contest.
Baetz scored on a fielder’s choice in the fifth, Peck singles and plated on a wild pitch and Nicholas Mazzone added an RBI sacrifice fly in the sixth for Clarkston to put the Wolves in the lead at 5-3.
Baetz also tripled in the seventh and scored on Rodgers’s RBI single to cap the scoring.
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Category: Clarkston, High School, High School (M-Z), Prep Wraps
